1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile smoke control and fire protection device in buildings and a method for preventing a propagation of smoke and fire in physical structures.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a case of fire, the fire department generally uses a stairway area as a route of attack. A door, for example, an apartment door behind which the fire is located, is opened by the fire department. After entering the burning room, the entrance door has to remain open, at least ajar, due to the hose of the fire department. The same applies when further persons enter or leave the fire area. In this case the door has to be opened even wider. The opening of a door behind which the fire is located and also the necessity of keeping the door at least partially open leads in most cases to a propagation of smoke and consequently to a danger for people as a result of fire smoke and with it to an increase of fire damage. Also in the cases in which the fire is not directly located behind the entrance door and/or the apartment door but in another room of the apartment, an increase in damage due to smoke propagation throughout the entire apartment and from there also extending out to the stair way area is caused by the opening of the door behind which the fire is located and its remaining open during the fire extinguishing procedure. The increase in damage will be even larger if a door has had to be forced opened since the latter can then no longer be safely closed at all. The same also applies of course for offices, practices and other units in use in a building.
Alternative attack routes, for example, through a window in the fire area, firstly are more complicated, in part, more difficult and/or more dangerous for the task forces and furthermore are also not generally realizable.
The smoke problem is already sought to be minimized through so-called positive pressure ventilation by means of high-performance ventilators. These are supposed to generate a relative positive pressure and to force an air current which reduces a further entry of smoke in a stairwell. Practice has shown however that this positive pressure ventilation cannot always be implemented successfully. For larger buildings and also for publicly used buildings structural requirements to prevent the spread of smoke and fire are frequently specified by building codes, such as for example fire doors, but when fire doors have to be passed through and, for example, equipment and fire hoses have to be led through, their functionality ceases to exist because also in this case the fire door and/or smoke protection door can often no longer be closed.
In order to avoid a propagation of smoke when a door can no longer be closed, it is already known from DE 296 08 290 U1 to generate an air curtain to secure a passage, whereby air in the area of the passage is supposed to flow from the top down in sufficient strength in order to prevent the penetration of smoke or fire. Such a means, however, has only a limited effect and has to be mounted stationary on all relevant doors. In addition, the air supply can have a detrimental effect for the spreading of the fire and due to the air current generated it can result in an increase in the smoke gas volume due to turbulence.
From DE 298 05 216 U1 a fixed smoke control door is known which is installed in a building in which the door leaf and/or the door frame is provided in the lower region with a utility passage for a fire hose or suchlike.
The disadvantage with this fire door, however, is that the latter has to be present in a correspondingly large number in a building. In addition to a visually unattractive design, the utility passage in the manner of an access opening for small animals such as cats, for example, is a weak spot in the event of a burglary and weakens the mechanical stability of a door leaf.